Monday, April 23, 2012

Monday morning thoughts

I'm up early.  Not adjusted to the time here at home yet.  I guess I'm still on Kenya time.  It always takes a while to adjust.  Here are just a few thoughts on the last week in Africa:

-We had a great team on this trip that worked really well together.  They helped each other and supported one another all through the week.  It was great to see a group of men bond the way this team did.

-It was a week without.  Without television.  Without cell phone.  Without internet.  Without e-mail.  Without texts.  I realized, as I thought about this, that it was a wonderful loss.  I had time to think, to rest, to relax.  The constant flow of information in our lives is not all that healthy.  It was great to be without it all for our week in Africa.

-Our trip took us through Dubai.  What an amazing airport!  At 1:30am Saturday night the airport was packed with travelers, literally thousands from all over the world, running to meet the next flight in this airport in the dessert.  It was also amazing what a facility they had built.  The airport had over 200 gates for airplanes.  It was like a sea of people flowing to the next destination.

-I'm so glad for foods from around the world.  I love the different spices, the different flavors.  It was amazing to taste garlic that was hotter than chili peppers.  It was interesting to have a veggie burger at McDonalds in Dubai.  It was great to have lamb with all the spices that go with it.  But, I have to admit....I'm so glad for good ole' american food.

-One of the things that the pastors in Kenya do really well is worship.  It was a rich blessing to participate in worship with such excitement and joy.  They love to worship and it gave us a greater love for it too.

-The pastors we met with all begged for books.  None of them have good resources or the money to buy them.  They want to learn, to grow, but don't have the resources to do it.  That's my next project.  To get them good resources to do their job as pastors.

-These trips are always good for me.  I get so myopic in my little world and forget that around the world life is going on even as I live my moments.  I pray for a bigger view of life than the one I have now.

I'll share more as the thoughts process, but for now it's great to be home.

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